Dreamer Boy
by Justaguyandadream
Summary: Roxas was just a happy but lonely little dreamer boy. That is, until a certain brunet crossed his path... [Roxas/Sora]
1. Chapter 1

Dreamer Boy

Z~Z~Z

Chapter 1

"_Beginnings are sudden, but also insidious. They creep up on you sideways, they keep to the shadows, they lurk unrecognized. Then, later, they spring."_

― _Margaret Atwood_

Z~Z~Z

Roxas woke suddenly from his slumber, annoyed. He was just about to unveil the identity of his frequenting brown-haired dream boy by turning him around and finally seeing his face when something started tugging on his ear. Roxas turned his head to find his dog and best friend for the past 10 years Beast pawing the side of head, the source of his awakening. _Stupid fleabag_, Roxas thought as he patted the panting dog on his head.

The brilliant sun made Roxas squint as he pushed aside his blonde hair to glance at the intricate train and tracks/alarm clock his father built for his 8th birthday across the room from him. 8:23 a.m. Twilight Town was already beginning to stir with action as its inhabitants bustled about in the cobblestone streets. It was nowhere near as big as the nearby cities of Luca or Bevelle, but Roxas loved the charm of all the old shops, mysterious back alleys, and friendly citizens scattered throughout the town.

As Roxas rose from his bed, the faint aroma of pancakes tickled his nostrils. _Yes, Mom's pancakes! _Roxas joyously exclaimed to himself. Shera Strife knew that her homemade paopu pancakes got her boys out of bed faster than anything, and for good reason, too, as anyone who had tasted them before could attest. Roxas quickly threw on his favourite pair of jeans and Teen Titans t-shirt and rushed barefoot downstairs to get his share before they were completely devoured by Cloud and his father.

Fortunately, though, Roxas was the first to arrive, even though it meant he had to endure the torture of waiting for the other two to wake up. "Good morning, Roxas," Shera said as she went about setting the table. "I hope you're excited for today. You know your father and I have been anxiously preparing for this. Well, at least I have."

"Of course, Mom," Roxas replied as he helped distribute the silverware. "It'll be so awesome finally having my own car."

As Roxas had just turned 16 last week and passed his driver's license test with flying colours, his parents had been looking for a suitable first vehicle for him as a celebration. They couldn't afford anything flashy, and Roxas didn't want to stand out driving around in a BMW or anything like that, so when they found a decently working Chevy S-10 for sale at an equally decent price, he was ecstatic. Sure, the tailgate creaked a little upon inspection, and the truck had well over 100,000 miles on it, but the charm of the little black pick-up was enough for Roxas to fall in love with it.

Three minutes passed, and the bulky, ever-sulking frame of Cloud Strife came hovering through the kitchen and plopped into his chair without a word. Another two minutes, and Cid Strife appeared, attempting to light a cigarette (which Shera immediately swatted out of his hand). Grumbling slightly, Cid picked up the swatted cigarette before bidding his family a gruff "good morning." "And Roxas," he added, "don't forget that I need you to go by the post office to pick up that part I ordered for your Chevy after we've bought it. You're going to need it if you ever want to drive that thing long-distance."

"Yes, dad. How could I forget? You know I'm going to run away to New York with all of the family's cash as soon as you get it fixed up." Everyone laughed as they dug into breakfast. Said escape from his home life was the common jest among the Strife residence as Roxas truly did miss living the city life with his best friends Axel and Demyx.

"Yes, well, no matter where you drive it, you have to remember to be safe, so buckle up, drive the speed limit, and avoid dangerous areas," Shera interjected.

"That also means no girlfriends in your truck for your first six months." Cloud added. "You, especially with your lack of attention, don't need any, erm, feminine distractions while driving. Believe me, I know."

Shera threw a look at him (Cloud had had a minor fender bender when he and his former girlfriend Tifa were PDA-ing at an intersection), and everyone laughed again though Roxas was still left feeling slightly awkward. Among his entire family, Cloud was the only one that picked up on Roxas's complete disinterest in girls, though Cloud didn't care who his little brother dated as long as whoever it was made Roxas happy.

"Yes, well, pregnancy is also something you need to avoid as your new truck has taken a considerable chunk of mine and your mother's money set aside for you," Cid added. Shera shot him a dirty not-at-the-table look, which made Cloud and Roxas laugh again. Roxas then took the opportunity to excuse himself, brush his teeth, and make sure his ever-spiky blond hair looked presentable before they picked up his truck.

Z~Z~Z

On the ride over to Zanarkand where the truck's owner, a man named Jecht, lived, Roxas couldn't help but daydream about driving his nameless, faceless, dreamy boyfriend around town on date after date as the two explored teenage love. He could practically feel the wind whipping past his face as he cruised to the sound of the local electro radio station—until a blast of wind and a sweetly stale aroma woke him to find that it was actually just his father rolling down the window to smoke a cigarette while Cloud was interrupting the Pointers Sisters' song playing to find a station playing the new Fall Out Boy single. Thoroughly disappointed once more with his fantasy being interrupted, Roxas sighed heavily as his mother smiled at him with the tiniest hint of worry from the passenger seat.

They soon were passing by the famous arcance buildings decorated with strange, glitzy, futuristic design schemes from the glamorous past era that Zanarkand thrived during. Jecht's house was half a mile down the road from the strangest looking building in the town: something that looked like a cross between a cathedral, a night club, and a football stadium. Sure, Zanarkand was still a contemporary and commercially functioning town dotted with fast food restaurants, grocery stores, and the like, but with most of these places being run out of such avant garde buildings, it made even the local McDonald's seem like a themed night club from the exterior.

While Cid and Jecht made the transaction, Roxas tried to imagine what the place must have been like in its prime. He saw lights of every colour flashing advertisements for arcane products as, for some reason, his dream boy strolled along fascinated by the town's grandeur. Roxas was so busy staring at the brunet angel that he didn't even realize that his dream boy actually was walking down the street 500 feet ahead of him with a taller silver-haired boy and a shorter red-haired girl trailing closely behind. His ears could just barely pick up the three of them discussing a Struggle tournament next Saturday…

"Ready, Roxas?"

His mother's sudden inquiry snapped Roxas out of his fantasy and made him stumble and almost fall as he had been gradually leaning to walk toward his brown-haired fantasy (whom he now realized was real). All of these converging factors caused Roxas's face to turn a deep shade of red, which was not helped by the image of Cloud silently laughing his ass off behind his father. Now thoroughly embarrassed, Roxas took the key from his father and thanked him.

Only after he had gotten inside his truck did Roxas notice the peculiar design of the key. It had a glossy black finish with a badass bat wing design around the handle and a small, blue plastic gem at the center of the base. A chain pattern ran up the center of the key, and instead of teeth, the key was smooth up to the end where there was an intricate-looking crown-shaped design. All in all, it looked like a tricked out skeleton key. Roxas checked the ignition and inserted the key; it fit like a charm. Wondering who was talented enough to make such a practical piece of art, Roxas started his truck, plugged his iPod into the auxiliary jack, selected "Sweet Talk" by Kito & Reija Lee, and drove back to Twilight Town with a smile on his face.


	2. Chapter 2

So from the reviews I've read, both on the site and from people on my Facebook, I'm apparently doing a good job with this one so far. I must thank the author of "My Kind of Guy," another Roxas/Sora based story, and the author of another story I found on the Internet called "Beyond the Rain" for my inspiration thus far. Speaking of my inspiration, I know it might be unusually early for a second chapter to be debuted, but I've just been on a roll lately. Can't shake the feeling to write, ya know?! Enjoy Chapter 2!

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Dreamer Boy

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Chapter 2

"_Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous." –Albert Einstein_

Z~Z~Z

"Is that all for you, hon?"

Roxas re-entered reality for what had to be the umpteenth time that day as the middle-aged post office clerk (Phyllis, he thought her name was) handed him the package his father ordered.

"Umm, yes ma'am."

Phyllis's eyes darted over to where Roxas's had been fixed: a poster on the wall with a picture of a cartoon hand holding a sparring sword advertising a Struggle tournament. "Oh, you're a Struggler, are you?" she inquired, sizing up the boy. "I hope you know what you're getting yourself into. Word is that hotshot from Destiny Islands is expected to compete, and I think he's about your age, so watch out for him in your category. Boy's supposed to be a legend among all the duelists in the region, let alone Twilight Town High. Do you know who I'm talking about?"

Roxas shook his head, as he had never involved himself with the school's Struggle team or any other organizational athletic program the school offered. He knew that the object of the sport was to hit your opponent with your sword as many times as possible within a five-minute window, and he was actually pretty decent at it thanks to Cloud's coaching, but he never had any interest in pursuing the sport farther. Yeah, Cloud could have gotten him on the team since he was the best Struggler to have ever graduated from TTH (and loved to remind Roxas of it daily), but being picked last in elementary school gym class had a lasting effect on him, and that's without even considering his initial lack of confidence and self-esteem.

But then, as Phyllis was mumbling to herself, Roxas vaguely remembered something from earlier that day involving Struggle, something that had to do with the tournament on the poster…when was it again?...

"Sora! That's his name! I thought I might never remember! Sora Leonhart!"

Phyllis's exclamation, though Roxas paid little attention to its content, jogged his memory, and he suddenly remembered that his dream boy was saying something about it to his companions. "I wonder if I would see him there," Roxas thought aloud.

"Well, of course you would see him there," Phyllis assured him with a slight hint of annoyance in her tone. "Do you not remember me telling you about him mopping the floor with all of his competitors?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. I was totally lost in my own thoughts there for a second," Roxas tried to explain.

"Daydreaming, eh? You seem to do that a lot. You're not one of those queers fighting for the sick right to marry each other, are you?"

Instantly, Roxas lost all interest in staying any longer. He paid Phyllis what he owed her out of the munny Cid gave him and, more or less, stormed out of the post office, stopping only at the poster to reconfirm that the Struggle tournament was indeed next Saturday. Finally in his truck, he broke down and cried for a solid three minutes before he realized his parents would start worrying about him what with it being almost 4 p.m. He turned his truck on, put on some older Paramore, and drove home a little faster than he probably should have while trying to pull himself together.

Z~Z~Z

Despite his efforts, it was clear something was troubling him upon opening the door and entering the living room.

"You picked a fine time to come ho-" Cid began before Shera hit him over the head with a magazine and asked Roxas what was wrong. He ignored his mother's inquiry, left the package on the coffee table, and went straight up to his room to hide his face and his tears in his pillow.

About five minutes had passed when Cloud walked in and sat next to him on the bed. Cloud immediately knew what was wrong, as he had only ever seen Roxas this distraught when someone at school dropped the fag-bomb on him at school. He pulled his little brother up from his pillow and embraced him with one arm while pulling a bar of Roxas's favourite sea-salt ice cream from inside his jacket. "Who was it this time?" Cloud asked with a little more malice than he intended to let out.

"It wasn't anyone from school," Roxas tearfully answered while graciously accepting the ice cream. "I was just having a small conversation with the lady at the desk about the Struggle tournament next Saturday when next thing I know she's asking me if I'm 'one of those queers,' and I just left and- …and—"

"Don't worry about it. If it's the clerk I'm thinking of, then she's just a miserable old crone who's too busy being caught up in her 'traditional' ways to even entertain the possibility that times have changed. I mean, I'd rather be gay than some old hag like her, wouldn't you?"

Roxas laughed a little and ate some more of the ice cream bar. Even though they had their own minor quarrels with each other, whenever something or someone hurt Roxas's fragile feelings throughout his childhood, Cloud was always there with some sea salt ice cream in tow. No one was sure whether it was Cloud, the ice cream, or the combination that was so effective at getting him to calm down, but as long as it helped Roxas, Cloud didn't really care what it was. Cid initially was concerned with him consoling Roxas and threatening whoever hurt him, claiming that Roxas wasn't going to get any stronger if he never handled his own issues. Shera, however, countered him by explaining how Roxas also wasn't going to get any stronger if he didn't think he had a strong support behind him like the one Cloud provided. Cloud didn't care which of them was right as he hated seeing his little brother go through what he himself went through without the support of an older brother figure.

After a brief silence, Cloud bent down and said in a low voice, "You know they're all wrong, right?-uh, well, maybe 'incorrect' would've fit better there." Roxas laughed again as Cloud corrected himself. "Seriously though, you're going to be an amazing person one day, and the only one your sexuality will matter to will be whichever lucky guy you choose to be your husband. I mean it."

"I guess so, but what if I never find a guy I like? I mean, crushes are one thing, but I'm talking about a decent guy who has all the right qualities and will actually like me back. I know that one old statistic that 1 out of every 10 kids is non-hetero, meaning around 150 people in our school are gay, but that doesn't mean that the ones who are guys will like me or that I'll even like them."

"There you go, overthinking everything again. Tell you what, I remember a rumour flying around that one of the freshman when I was senior was gay and had a crush on me. Maybe I'll look him up and get you two together."

"No!" Roxas yelled before he realized how loudly he did so. "Sorry, what I meant was I seriously don't think I could do that. I really don't like the idea of a blind date. I'd want to be friends with the guy first."

Although Cloud found this proclamation odd, he let it go and chuckled a bit. Roxas came with a lot of littler quirks than just his inherent lack of self-esteem, and most of these were just minor behavioral twitches that made Cloud laugh. Roxas noticed Cloud's laughter and laughed a little himself, which in turn made Cloud laugh harder, and the trend continued until both were almost bawling out of hysteria. After their mini-fit was over, Cloud immediately threw his because-I'm-a-badass persona back on.

"Alright then. I'm going to go hang out with Aerith for a bit, so don't call or anything or I'll kill you. Seriously." Cloud got up to leave.

"Wait!" Roxas remembered the tournament as his older brother was shutting the door behind him, "Were you going to sign up for the Struggle tournament next Saturday?"

Cloud looked puzzled as the little squirt rarely ever showed interest in athletic events and even stopped coming to Cloud's own Struggle competitions to cheer his older brother on once the younger of the two hit middle school.

"Yeah, why do you ask? Got a crush in the competition?"

"No!" was the answer he received, although it was completely contradicted by Roxas's face turning bright red enough to mimic a Christmas decoration. "I, umm, thought I might try my hand at competing, you know. First time for everything and all that, right?"

"Oh, I see. What's his name?"

Roxas threw his pillow at the door, but Cloud had already sprinted out of it and down the stairs. He heard some minor chastising from Shera and Cloud shutting the door to the garage and turning his car on before he found the motivation to get up and pick his pillow up off the floor. Roxas surveyed his tear stains in the pillow case and grew a little somber again, so to counter it, he went over to his computer and looked up some information on Struggle and some basic guidelines the sport typically followed. When he was satisfied he was well familiarized with the rules, he went to a page concerning the tournament itself, and before he knew it, he was finally looking at his dream boy's face. Impossibly electric blue eyes, messy yet oddly tidy chestnut brown hair whose spikes seemed to defy gravity itself, a cute puppy dog nose that made its owner resemble a playful canine, and a smile that had to make the devil himself shift in his seat whenever its brilliance was on display. Roxas drooled for a few minutes before he came to and inspected why his fantasy lover's face was front and center on the page.

The first thing he saw was that the boy's name was Sora Leonhart.

The next was the banner declaring him the current champion of the biannual tournament.

Roxas's dream boy was the champion from Destiny Islands.

Z~Z~Z

So if you've come this far, thank you for remaining interested in the story. I'm actually thinking of a different title, given the whole "dream boy" theme I've continued with. I have a few ideas in mind as to what I'd change it to, but if you have any, please don't hesitate to leave it in the reviews (which I've found that I love reading!) Also, if anyone is interested in reading the stories that inspired mine, you can put that in the reviews as well, and if there's enough by the next time I update the story, I'll go ahead and put in the URL's.

Again, thank you so much!


	3. Chapter 3

Three things: so Chapter 3 was, and pardon my French, a le bitch to make. Dialogue is apparently not my forte. Hopefully, I'll get better with more practice. In the meantime, please bear with me. Also, I've decided to change the title to "Dreamer Boy." Fits, don't you think? Lastly, those of you who have gotten this far and paid close attention may have noticed that names have changed and purpose have been reassigned. I apologize if this is bothering you, but I guess I'm just not used to writing a story chapter by chapter. I typically like to go back and edit things AS I'm writing and then submit it as a whole, and it's probably screwing with you guys that I'm having to go back and change things in certain chapters as I go. If you've noticed. Either way, it gives you a chance to go back and read it again, which is a plus for me :D! But really, I'm sorry if you've noticed and it bugs you. Anyways, enjoy Chapter 3!

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Dreamer Boy

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Chapter 3

"_High school is like a spork: it's a crappy spoon and a crappy fork, so in the end it's just plain useless." –John Mayer_

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Sunday flew by as all Roxas did was practice for the tournament with Cloud and contemplate (while drooling over a printed out picture of Sora) how to beat the competition just to get a chance to shake hands with his dream boy. Before he knew it, it was Mundane—excuse me, Monday—and Roxas was forced to get up out of bed and prepare for the hellish nightmare known more commonly as Twilight Town High. The one and quite possibly only good thing about today was that he didn't have to ride the smelly old bus and put up with the obese and equally smelly bus driver Ursula anymore.

Unfortunately though, this supposed saving grace only provided yet another problem Roxas found upon trying to find a parking spot. His casual take-it-easy demeanor in the morning caused him to get to school right before the bell rang, so naturally, all the good parking spots were taken, and Roxas was forced to park in the back of "the pot lot " and walk by a rather unsavoury looking couple making out with each other in the back of a beat up, old pick-up.

Roxas rushed to front door, eager to avoid any more disgusting PDAs, and ran down the hall straight to Ms. Maleficent's Chemistry class. After a thoroughly dramatic scolding (the old hag was also the drama teacher after all), Roxas embarrassedly sat down at his seat in the back of the lab and began mixing the lab ingredients to make today's compound. All Roxas could think about was Sora: the way his eyes seemed to pierce Roxas's heart through the screen of his computer and know of his admirer's passion, the number of products he must use to keep his hair aloft, the sheer brilliance of his angel's smile…

***BANG***

Smoke blew up into Roxas's face and clouded up an entire half of the lab. "FOOLISH BOY!" Roxas, God, and everybody else heard Maleficent yell across the room. "DID I NOT TELLYOU TO GENTLY REMOVE THE ACETONE PEROXIDE FROM YOUR FLASK?!"

Roxas did his best to survive her fury, but to little avail, which was not helped by his classmates jeering at him from behind the she-devil's back. Thoroughly embarrassed, Roxas all but melted into the back of the room, Sora once again only being the positive thought in his mind.

Z~Z~Z

Roxas ran out of the room as quickly as possible when the bell rang and made for Ms. Lulu's English class where he could find his last solace in this dreadful world: Olette. She was Roxas's best friend since kindergarten ever since the village idiot Seifer kicked over his sand castle and Olette chased Seifer down, beat him up, and tied him to the fire pole on the playground. They were each other's go-to for anything, and lately, Olette was doing more of the going-to as she had the hots for another guy in their English class named Hayner.

"Hey, Roxas!" Olette said as he entered the room. "Why's your face all cloudy-looking."

"Chemistry. Again."

"Really, Roxas? You're lucky you're good at pretty much every other subject because if you had to change your major in college, and chemistry was your only other option, you'd be screwed."

"Tell me about it. So have you talked to Hay-hay yet?"

Olette giggled at Roxas's pet name for Hayner, then went bright red in the face. "Shut up, he's going to here you!" Olette managed to say through her giggling.

"Oh, really? Well, what if were to yell 'HEY, HAY-!"

Olette kicked him in the shin just as Hayner was turning around to find who was calling his name. Roxas gasped in pain, and Olette turned around to see Hayner had already gone back to talking with his friend Pence.

"Was that really necessary?" Roxas inquired while nursing the purpling bruise on his shin.

"Yes! You idiot! He'd never like me!"

Roxas grumbled something that sounded like it rhymed with "twitch" and narrowly dodged another kick to the shin.

"Soooooo," Olette began in that tone that all girls do with gay guys, "Do you have anyone YOU like yet?"

It was then Roxas's turn to go bright red in the face. "None that you need to know about."

"OH, COME ON. All the shit you give me about Hayner, and I can't give you just a little taste of your own medicine? What's his name? Is he in our grade? Does he play any sports? Ooooo, I bet he's one of those big, muscular lineman on the football team. Does he sit near us at lunch? What's his…"

As Lulu began her lesson, Roxas let her and Olette's continuing pestering fade into the background, smiling slightly. Her assumption of his muscularity made him start imagining Sora shirtless, which in turn led to more and more clothes being removed…

"Is it a teacher? No, is it one of the teaching assistants? Roxas? Hey, Roxas!"

"Huh? What, did I miss something?"

Olette hit him over the head with her notebook. "You really are a dreamer boy, aren't you? I was asking you about your crush."

"Oh, well—."

"Excuse me," Lulu interjected, "but if you don't pay attention in my class you'll learn exactly what kind of hell I can bring you."

Having been reprimanded by a teacher for the second time today, Roxas quickly decided to focus his attention on Lulu's fascinating lecture over the works of Jonathan Swift. However, his notes said differently: the only relevant item was the phrase "Jonathan Swift is," while the rest of it was covered in doodles, hearts, and the initials "R&S." Olette looked over at his paper to get a note she missed, saw Roxas's artwork, and started jumping in her seat in excitement before she remembered Lulu's stern warning and calmed her jumping to an awkward fidgeting.

Z~Z~Z

As Lulu sighed when the bell rang and abruptly ended her drawling on "A Modest Proposal," the class grabbed up their backpacks and hurried off to TTH's enormous cafeteria for their lunch break. Olette and Roxas fell a bit behind everyone so their conversation wouldn't be overheard.

"So I saw you writing 'R&S' all over your paper. Is 'S' Seifer?"

Roxas laughed. "Oh, hell no."

"Then who is it?!"

And right as she asked that, Roxas spotted his dreaminess entering the lunch line. He was wearing a gray hoodie with black stripes, black cargo shorts, and bright blue Vans that matched his eyes. His hair was just as perfectly imperfect as ever, and it bounced a little as, from what Roxas could tell, Sora noticed that macaroni and cheese was being served that day. As Sora walked over to join his silver-haired friend, he passed right by Roxas, who noticed the intoxicating cologne Sora was wearing. Olette noticed it as well, but only because Roxas's head was involuntarily following its trail as his eyes were fixed on its owner.

"Oh, I see. Instead of a big, buff jock, you're going for the lean little Struggle star. Tell me, is 'S' for 'Sora' or 'Struggle'?"

Sora barely caught his name being mentioned and looked around for the source. Fortunately, Roxas thought quickly enough to spill Olette's drink all over her and duck underneath the table with some napkins, pretending to clean it up. Of course, this made him subject to a few well-placed kicks from his victim. _Where the hell does she get such pointy shoes?_ Roxas wondered to himself.

When Roxas felt that he had ducked for cover long enough, he came back up to find one very furious Olette. "What the hell, Roxas?!"

"You know exactly why I did that!" Roxas said back, failing to sound stern through the sheepish expression on his face.

"Yeah, well, you think you went a little far, maybe? I just got these damn pants! You're lucky it was only water, but even then, it's still going to be annoying as hell walking around in soggy-ass pants. You asshole."

Roxas raised his hands away from each other with his elbows bent in a pose reminiscent of some guilty kid off of an old sitcom. Olette waved her hand and dismissed it, returning to her now slightly waterlogged mashed potatoes.

"So do you think I have good taste?" Roxas said as a peace offering, knowing she was dying to talk about his dream boy somewhere deep inside her.

The hint of a smile crossed Olette's face. "Oh, yeah. It's not my personal style, but I must say, damn."

"How much of a chance do you think I have with him?"

Olette tilted her head in thought. "The rumour is that he's dating that red-headed girl—what's her name, Kairi or something like that? Anyways, they do hang out a lot in public."

Roxas frowned slightly. "But he also hangs out with that silver-haired kid a lot. Maybe Kairi and Silver-Hair are dating."

Olette barely avoided spewing the contents of her mouth in laughter. "No, dearest, they tried that two years ago, and it lasted maybe three days. Riku and Kairi may have good personalities for a friendship, but definitely not for a relationship."

"How do you know all of this?" Roxas asked.

"Kairi's older sister, Aerith—isn't she dating your brother Cloud?—does my hair. She tells me all about the juicy gossip involving Kairi except when Kairi herself is there. However, she's not completely sure what the deal between Sora and Kairi is either. Sora comes around the salon a lot with Kairi, though. Maybe we should go get our hair done together, and I can get Aerith to invite Kairi and Sora over!"

"No, no, that's not necessary at all," Roxas replied, desparate to get such dangerous ideas out of Olette's head. "You know me. I'll probably pass out, someone'll have to call an ambulance, and Sora will forever think I'm either a weirdo or a complete loser."

"Actually, I doubt that. He's incredibly nice. Like, really nice. I've only ever spoken to the kid a handful of times, but every time since the first, he remembers my name, he remembers what we talked about the previous time, and he's always so polite and cheery. Perfect boyfriend material."

"Tell me about it…" Roxas trailed off. He looked over to stare at the beautiful white light bouncing off of Sora's perfect smile as Riku, he assumed the silver-haired kid's name was, was recounting some hilarious story to some other girl who looked a lot like Sora.

"Who is that?" Roxas asked Olette, pointing at the other girl.

"That's Sora's twin sister, Xion. She and Kairi are cool, but she mostly just comes along with Sora because she doesn't really have very many friends."

Roxas contemplated that for a bit before he suddenly raised his head as a light bulb turned on in his brain.

"That's it!" he thought out loud.

"What's 'it'?" Oletted asked.

"Xion! She's my ticket to Sora-town!"

Olette looked puzzled. "I thought the tournament was your ticket to 'Sora-town'. Besides, wouldn't that just mean you're using her?"

Roxas shook his head. "The tournament still is, but you could say Xion is insurance. As for whether or not I'd be using her, I'm actually going to try and be a friend to her. She looks like a cool enough person, kinda gothic, ya know? Time with Sora will just be one of the perks."

Olette still looked unsure. Roxas smiled and said, "Look, if it goes south, then you'll have every right to dog me about it. Until that time, God forbid it should come, shut it, you."

"Oh, you and your sass! You really aren't straight, are you?"

Both teens laughed as they realized it was almost time for lunch to end. They took their trays to the dish lady and walked out the cafeteria doors to the next class that awaited them.

Z~Z~Z

So I hope the dialogue wasn't too terrible. I love you as my audience and will try to work on it for your sake. And these things really ARE getting longer. Chapter 3 was 4 1/2 pages on Word! It's probably not as much as some of you have read in one chapter of other stories, but I personally LOVE how my creativity is making larger and larger chapters. Here's to the next one being even larger! Oh, and I'm sorry I ended this chapter kinda awkwardly, but with all the details I fit into it, if I were to finish it with the entire day's events, I think it would've been too radical a difference in chapter size. I'm also sorry for the cliffhangers, given the comments I'm receiving concerning them. However, I'm going to keep using cliffhangers because I want y'all to crave the next chapter, don't I? :P Thank you, as always!


	4. Chapter 4

So I know this one took a long time to upload. Like, a loooooong time. For me at least, given the amounts of time between each previous upload. Unfortunately, a lot has happened over the last few days, the most significant being my move back to college life. Again, I will try my best to not allow college to greatly impede my writing, but it will inevitably take longer for things to get uploaded considering I use the same medium for writing, homework, and reviewing a lot of the coursework, i.e., my beloved laptop Arcadia. Thank you for your patience and enjoy!

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Dreamer Boy

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Chapter 4

"_All I ever wanted was to reach out and touch another human being not just with my hands but with my heart." –_Tahereh Mafi, _Shatter Me_

Z~Z~Z

Roxas thought about how to approach Xion all throughout Mr. Hook's History class (and made sure to pay close enough attention to the oddly dressed man so that he wouldn't be reprimanded for a third time that day). After talking it over with Olette before she went off to her Biology class with Mr. Clayton, he found out that he actually had Art class with Xion at the end of the day and apparently never noticed her. Olette said she was a clay sculptor, so Roxas naturally thought of doing the classy thing and complimenting whatever pieces she's working on, but he hadn't the faintest idea of where to take the conversation afterwards that would lead to them being on a friendly basis. As the Captain droned on about the Spanish Inquisition, however, Roxas remembered what Cloud told him this past weekend about him over-thinking things and decided that just going with the flow was probably his best option.

The bell rang right as Hook was finishing up his last note. Roxas packed up his things, left, and walked down the hall slowly, working up the I'm-not-trying-to-get-to your-super-hot-twin-brother-through-you façade he'd been practicing since lunch. Before he knew it, though, he passed right by Mr. Geppetto's studio/classroom and had to backtrack past an amused (and slightly swooned) group of freshman girls. Roxas ignored them and entered the room.

Immediately, he began looking for Xion. The class had about 40 students in it, and the only one Roxas even bothered talking to was his table partner Namine, so it wasn't exactly easy. He eventually found her toward the back of the classroom placing a small vase in the kiln. Breathing slowly, making sure his façade was in check, he approached her and—

"You know, if you're going to work up the courage to ask me out, you probably shouldn't make it as obvious."

Completely taken aback, Roxas didn't know what to do, and found himself laughing at the sheer irony of the situation.

"No, I, umm, wasn't going to ask you out," he said through his laughter. "I was only going to comment on how nice your vase looks."

Xion contemplated that for a moment. "Well, you didn't slip up and say 'ass' instead of 'vase,' so I suppose I should believe you. Thank you."

Geppetto entered the room and attempted to say over the dull roar, "Alright class, get creating!"

Xion closed the kiln and moved to her table where her partner Larxene was working on a wood carving. Xion opened a portfolio of sorts, pulled out a picture of a very intricately designed vase, and began kneading a lump of clay. "So what inspired you to notice my vase?" Xion inquired.

"I thought the clay looked exceptionally smooth. Better than what most high school art students are capable of."

"Well, thank you, again. So what kind of art do you create?"

Roxas pointed to where Namine was already drawing an intricate lotus on her sketchpad. "My partner Namine and I are sketch artists. She draws the designs out, and I detail them with coloured pencils."

"Oh, were you two the ones who did the sketch of Oblivion Manor?"

"Yeah, we did it when…"

And they continued to softly ramble to each other about art until Namine came over with her finished lotus sketch about 15 minutes later.

"I've been wondering where you were," she said as she handed over the sketch. "I see you've been getting acquainted with the class's clay prodigy. Just make sure you finish that sketch in case you decide to partner up with Xion instead, kay?" Namine smiled and went back to the table as her signature sweetly sarcastic tone inspired Roxas to stick his tongue out at her.

As Xion was now shaping her clay, Roxas began finishing the lotus sketch, thinking it would make him look more genuine to her. Their previous conversation picked back up and moved from physical art to music, music to books, and finally books to family. Roxas lightly talked about how annoying Cloud was as an older brother while carefully deliberating if and how he should talk about Sora when Xion said, "My twin brother Sora is the same way! If I look away for even a second, he'll drain my bowl of Apple Jacks, and I'll have to eat the school's crappy breakfast."

Roxas mentally stumbled at the sudden inclusion of his crush in the conversation, and a few of his thoughts were almost blurted out. He attempted to recollect himself in enough time to not make himself look like an idiot. "Oh, you, umm, have a twin? Well, uh, what's he like?"

"Typical brother material," Xion sighed. "Eats my food. Uses my shampoo. Hell, if I don't go to bed early enough, he sometimes ends up sleeping in my bed because he was watching Netflix on our PS3, which we keep in my room. I mean, he's always really nice to me and everyone else, and he has a good taste in friends, though they're not the exact type of people I would normally hang out with. He can sometimes be a handful, though."

"Five minutes left, class!" Geppetto called out across the room. "Clean, reorganize, and if it's necessary, reassemble your tables!"

Roxas and Xion began straightening up their workspace. Xion still had some etching to do in her smaller model of the pictured vase, but Roxas had somehow finished the lotus sketch. "Holy shit, that's amazing!" Xion said a bit too loudly, earning a somewhat stern look from Geppetto.

"You think so?" Roxas asked.

"Of course! You know, you should come over some time and see my little gallery of my works." Roxas went a little red in the face and tried to hide it as he realized he'd just been somewhat indirectly invited to his dream boy's house. Xion saw this and added, "If you ever got bored of looking at clay art, we could always play God of War or something."

"Oh, umm, yeah, I'd love to come over!" Roxas said as he realized his mistake. "Actually, what are you doing today?"

"Nothing, really. If you want, you could ride home with me on the train."

Roxas got excited at the thought, but remembered Cid had procrastinated beyond Shera's limit for putting the part in Roxas's truck. "Well, I need to go home because my dad said he wanted to show me how to put this part in my truck, but I could be there around 5 o'clock."

"That would work! Here's my number so you can call me when you're on the way"

The final bell of the day rang as Roxas took the slip of paper. He grabbed his stuff, gave a cheerful "See ya!" to Xion who responded with a smile and a wave, and headed out the class room. He exited the school and trekked through the pot lot, making sure to keep his head down and move quickly to avoid its usual occupants. After starting his truck, he tried pulling out of the parking lot, but found that he was about the 20th person in line trying to do so at that time. Annoyed, he decided to use an old trick Cloud had used when he was in high school and plugged in his iPod. He went immediately to his Cradle of Filth songs, selected "Amor E Morte," rolled down his windows, and cranked up the volume. The driver in front of him was soon very irritated—Twilight Town was famous, or infamous as the case may be, among its younger residents for being a town whose musical preferences leaned toward 80's music and far away from any genre too different, death metal being a good example. The irritated driver honked his horn and threw a certain finger out his window, which made the driver in front of that driver assume it was directed toward him and mirror the action, and so on until the trend reached the driver in the very front who left as quickly as possible to avoid the angry onslaught of honking and air-fingering, which the cars behind him immediately began copying. Two minutes later, Roxas was finally pulling out of the lot, laughing at his success.

Z~Z~Z

"That's got her fixed. Your mileage should pick up a lot now."

Cid closed the hood of Roxas's pickup trick and lit a cigarette as the excited teen jumped in his truck. As Roxas was turning on the ignition, he heard his father knock on his window and rolled it down.

"Now, son, you know we're happy to pay for your first few tanks of gas, but your mother and I both think that you need to be on the lookout for a job so you can learn to be financially independent, not to mention a little pocket money. Keep that in mind while you're driving over to your friend's house, okay?"

"Sure thing, Dad. Bye."

Roxas drove off with an artist that Olette recommended to him named Janelle Monae playing on his iPod. He made a mental note to look up more of her music when he got back home as he half-danced to "Q.U.E.E.N." in his seat, getting a few weird looks from pedestrians when he had to stop at red lights. About the time he stopped at the third red light he came to, however, Roxas remembered he hadn't called Xion, called the number she gave him, and apologized for calling somewhat late. He was answered by blaring alternative music and hilariously bad singing being quickly hushed.

"Sorry about that, but yeah, I won't hold it against you. Where are you now?"

Roxas surveyed his surroundings. "I'm next to that old, run-down Burger King by the sandlot. What's that, maybe, five minutes from the station?"

"What colour's your truck?"

"Black. Why?"

"I'd say I'm right behind you."

Roxas turned around in his seat and saw through his back window a short, black-haired girl on the phone waving at him from the passenger seat of a little red Kia. However, what attracted his attention more was the brunet in the driver's seat who was still mouthing the words to the song Roxas now recognized as an old Chiodos hit that was playing (which Roxas only knew because it was high up on his list of favourite songs ever). Once again, Roxas was caught in a dream-like state, so much so that he didn't realize his red light had turned to green.

"Go, stupid!" he heard through the phone.

Roxas quickly returned to the proper driving position (as much as he didn't want to) and realized why he was being yelled at. "Oh, shit!" was the last thing he said before hanging up and fully returning his attention to the road.

He finally arrived at the station lot, parking near the entrance but not in the reserved ones, despite the reserved one next to him being flashily parked in by the red Kia as if the driver were starring in a car chase movie. Roxas hastily grabbed his things, knowing sketchy people like Seifer liked to prey those who left their possessions behind, and got out of his truck. As he was locking it with his key, the occupants of the Kia were getting out as well and walking toward him with their possession in hand. For some reason, the door lock, even though it was customized like the ignition, was being incredibly difficult and taking three times as much of Roxas's time (and seemingly all of his dignity) as he had originally intended. Before he knew it though, a soft, warm hand was on his shoulder.

"Here, let me help you with that," said the sweetest voice Roxas had ever heard.

Roxas immediately submitted—and to what, he wasn't quite sure—and let the gorgeous boy take his key from him.

"If you have a sticky lock like this, wiggle the key a little bit when you're turning it, and it'll open like a charm. The old hooptie I used to drive did the same thing, and it always worked with it." Both pairs of ears heard the lock click. The brunet stood up straight and faced Roxas with a smile that literally took his breath away as he took his key back from the angel.

"See, what did I tell you? My name's Sora by the way." He extended his impossibly soft hand once more for a handshake.

Fortunately, Roxas had been mentally preparing himself for this moment so he didn't completely freeze up. That still didn't keep his response from being delayed by about three whole seconds, though. When he finally extended his hand and shook, only being able to utter the word "Roxas," the brunet laughed a laugh that could've easily been mistaken for the sound of bells chiming. "You really are weird, aren't you? Seems to be the only type of person Xion meets."

Roxas instinctively and unintentionally took the defensive. "I'm not weird! Really! Totally normal!"

Sora laughed again, "Right. Of course you are."

"Are you two idiots going to kiss, or are we going to ever get on this damn train before it leaves?"

Xion had been trying to get both of their attentions from the station entrance with numerous nonverbal gestures to no avail for several seconds. Not noticing the deep shade of red Roxas's face turned upon the idea of the pair of them kissing, Sora shook his head and muttered something under his breath, said over his shoulder to Roxas "Come on, then!", and sped off to the station. Roxas meagerly walked behind and simply admired how the brunet looked like he could've been dancing to the station entrance.

Z~Z~Z

Upon taking their seats, Xion immediately and excitedly began talking about art again, but naturally, Roxas wasn't in the correct mental state to talk to her and answered with the polite bare minimum required for each question. Eventually though, she took notice went off on a tangent with Sora, and the two got into a light-hearted argument over anime at which Roxas finally cracked his frozen exterior and laughed. Both twins smiled at Roxas's apparent mood finally lifting.

"So I understand you're a sketch artist," Sora began, trying to keep the non-frozen Roxas alive. "What kind of things do you sketch?"

"Umm, well, I'm more of the detailing half of my sketch duo. My partner Namine does most of the actual sketching. I just go back and refine it, then add some colour to it."

"Oh, well I think that's even better, y'know?" Sora continued. "Like, you're the one behind the scenes who doesn't get much credit for making the masterpiece even better than it could've been, like the unsung hero or something."

Roxas blushed before he could hide his face. "Thanks," he managed to say.

Xion shot her twin a look that Roxas couldn't decipher and Sora himself completely ignored. "Sure thing, but I gotta ask, do you do anything athletic?"

"Ummm," Roxas unsurely muttered, given his almost complete distaste for athletics. "I'm not big on sports in general, but I do Struggle every now and then."

Sora's face lit up, while Xion's darkened in annoyance. "You Struggle?! No way! I love Struggle! I've been on the school team since middle school! You know there's a tournament this Saturday, right?"

As if he hadn't been heavily planning on going for the last three days for the very reason sitting right across from him, Roxas answered, "Yeah, I've been looking into signing up, but I'm still not sure."

"Well, you should. I'm going, all of my friends are going, Xion's going, although she's only watching, AND I heard they're having a guest who's a national champion come for the winner of the tournament to have an exhibition match with. His name's Spritzer or something like that.

"Oh, cool—," Roxas began to say before he was cut off by Xion impatiently yelling, "Can we please switch to a more interesting topic?!"

Sora jokingly glared at her. "Can it wait? We're arriving."

Roxas looked out the window for the first time during the train ride. What once was a surrounding sapphire-blue ocean was now yielding an emerald isle lined with white-gold sand. They had finally arrived at Destiny Islands.

Z~Z~Z

There it is. What you've been missing. Some face-to-face time with Roxas and Sora. Took long enough, right? Hopefully, those of you with Sherlockian skills have been able to detect the beginnings of the developing conflict (which I hadn't really started developing until Chapter 3 when I first thought of it). It's going to be juicy. Another issue I've been facing is that the time-setting is developing slowly. For those of you keeping up, this is only the third day of the storyline and the second day that has any decent amount of plot attached to it (I copped out of trying to make anything happen on Sunday). I know it seems like its going to take forever to get to that Struggle tournament on Saturday, but apparently my high school AP English teacher's lessons on a good plot having a shorter timeline stuck with me more than I knew. :P Love your reviews and questions, please keep them coming!

P.S. I hope you liked the blaring death metal part, even if you're not a fan of the genre. That tidbit was a story from my actual life (though the region of the South I'm from is much more into country music than 80's music), and I actually was that kid who would blare death metal to consecutively piss everyone off into moving faster out of my high school parking lot! Ha!


	5. Chapter 5

So, once again, I apologize for the amount of time it's now taking me to upload these. College has officially caught up to me, and I'm admittedly not the most diligent person on the planet when it comes to doing my homework. I just love seeing my views rise and getting new followers, favourites, and reviews. You guys are awesome 3. Enjoy Chapter 5!

Z~Z~Z

Dreamer Boy

Z~Z~Z

Chapter 5

"_If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door."_ –Milton Berle

Z~Z~Z

As Roxas waited with the twins for the island's trolley system to arrive at the station's stop, he could still barely believe the beauty of the island around him. The sand of the beaches looked like it could be pixie dust. The palm trees on the beach and the deciduous trees closer to the center of the isle were both gently swaying in the warm coastal breeze and looked so much more alive and happy—happy for a tree, that is—than any trees in Twilight Town could ever hope to be. But his favourite part was the ocean. Near the coast, it was such a gorgeous shade of turquoise he had to blink a few times to make sure he wasn't dreaming he was in a video game. As you got farther away from the coast, it turned to a deep, brilliant cerulean that probably made the sky jealous of its hue. The absolute best part in Roxas's opinion was how all of the ocean's blues matched the different bright blues in Sora's eyes. He couldn't even remember what his favourite colour was beforehand; blue was all that mattered to him now.

"So what do you think?" Xion asked Roxas.

"It's gorgeous. I mean, I love the climate of Twilight Town, but I definitely would not mind having a vacation home out here."

"I was talking about getting a pizza for dinner, but thank you."

Roxas looked confused but then realized he must have been so drawn in by the landscape that he completely missed some conversation between the twins. "Pizza sounds good, then."

"Only if with Netflix," Sora interjected. "You can't eat pizza with a friend without some form of visual entertainment."

"Fine, we'll decide on something to watch later," Xion said. "For now, what should we get on the pizza?"

All three thought about it for a moment before they all three shouted "Pepperoni!"

"And mushrooms!" Sora added. "Pizza without mushrooms isn't really pizza."

"Eww!" Xion replied. "You are not putting a fungus on my dinner!"

"Actually, I wouldn't mind pizza with mushrooms on it," Roxas cut in. "My mom makes pizza with these mushrooms she spices beforehand, and ever since I first had it, I've loved it."

Sora beamed while Xion grumbled in disappointment. "Whatever," she finally relented. "But only on half of it. I have to eat something."

Sora cheered and extended his hand for a high-five with Roxas, who immediately returned it and upon realizing what he had just done started going red in the cheeks.

"What's wrong?" both twins asked simultaneously.

"Oh, nothing. Sunburn, I guess."

"You weren't kidding when you said you don't get out much, huh?" Sora remarked.

"Guess not, heheheh."

Z~Z~Z

*ding ding ding*

The trolley had finally arrived. The trio boarded it, bade good morning to the old lady driving it, and sat down near the front before a lady with reddish-brown hair and a pink dress that Roxas vaguely recognized ran up to them from the back of the trolley and hugged Xion.

"Hey, sis!" Xion said affectionately. "What're you doing here?"

"Well, I didn't have any more appointments for the day, so I figured I'd come and pick up my little troublemaker siblings," the woman replied.

"Oh, that reminds me!" Xion said. "Roxas, this is our sister Aerith."

Roxas finally remembered where he recognized the lady from. Even though she'd been to his house several times to see Cloud, Aerith was almost completely kept away from Roxas so Cloud woudn't have to put up with Roxas interrupting their alone time. Since the last time he'd caught a glimpse of her, Aerith had changed her hair colour from the chestnut-brown that apparently partially run in the Leonhart to a more mahogany shade.

"Oh, hey, Roxas," Aerith said, smiling at him.

"Hey, Aerith," Roxas said, shyly smiling back.

Both twins looked slightly confused. "You two know each other?" they once again said simultaneously, looking slightly annoyed with each other when they realized they were mimicking each other.

"Sure we do," Aerith answered. "You know I'm dating Cloud right? Roxas is his younger brother."

Xion looked satisfied enough with the explanation, but Sora's jaw dropped. "You're the younger brother of Cloud Strife?!" he exclaimed. "Like, THE Cloud Strife? The only guy my older brother Leon's ever lost to in a Struggle?"

"Uhh, yeah, that's the one, I guess," Roxas embarrassedly responded.

"What do you mean 'you guess?!' Don't you realize that your brother is a former Struggle champion of our school?! How could you keep something like that from me?! Oh, you and I SO have to Struggle sometime. If he's your older brother than you surely must've received some amount of mentoring from him or something…" Sora continued rambling about Struggle and Cloud while Xion had moved toward the back of the trolley to order the pizza, leaving Roxas to be awkwardly but not reluctantly subject to Sora's rambling until Aerith cut in after reading a page or two of her book.

"Sora, calm down. Roxas clearly isn't as passionate about Struggle as you, or he would've mentioned Cloud earlier. Give the poor boy's ears a break."

Sora put his hand behind his head in embarrassment and smiled awkwardly at Roxas as he apologized. "Sorry, man. I just get so caught up sometimes, y'know?"

Roxas smiled back and was surprised at how easily he did so without blushing or anything. "It's alright. Passion's not something to be ashamed of."

"Guess so,

*ding ding ding*

The trolley had stopped outside a subdivision of moderately sized but clearly lavish houses. Roxas got off the trolley first and, as the siblings were getting off, surveyed the neighbourhood around him. The sign at the entrance read "Radiant Garden," and the residences it pertained to greatly lived up to its name. All of the houses had at least two stories, most had elaborate yards and gardens with brightly coloured flowers and topiary to enhance the beauty of each's exterior, and a few even had intricate stained glass above the doorways that would rival the windows of the churches in Twilight Town. Xion took the opportunity while Roxas stood in awe and hit him on the shoulder, shouting "Tag, you're it!" and ran down the main avenue. Roxas stood and processed what just happened, giving Sora and Aerith enough time to follow suit with Xion, and began to chase after the three of them. He went for Sora, him being the closest, and laughed at both the fun he was having playing a child's game and the symbolic image of him chasing after his dream boy. By the time he was able to catch up and tag him (nearly crashing into him), the other two had slowed down and were walking up the driveway of a red brick house with the most intricate stained glass thus far.

"Welcome to Casa del Leonhart," Sora said.

Z~Z~Z

The interior of the house was equally as impressive as the exterior. Dark hardwood flooring lay across the small foyer of the house and ran out to other rooms and up the spiral staircase. Photos, paintings, and other visual art took up about half of the wall space, the rest of which was either covered up by expensive furniture or had a hand-painted design across it that was a shade darker than the olive green wall around it. As they travelled up the staircase, Roxas found his favourite part of the house apart from its youngest male resident: a jet-black grand piano with the top opened and the strings exposed.

Aerith turned left at the top of the staircase, waving goodbye as she went to her room. The remaining trio turned right and stopped at a door completely covered in band posters except for small square patch surrounding the knob. The black-walled room that lay beyond it was almost equally covered in clay sculptures, some with glazed colouring and some left the colour of the clay. In the opposite corner of the room was a diagonally positioned queen-size bed next to a door with an argyle-print comforter that had sketches of various sculptures sprawled across it, some of which had physical counterparts on the shelves that lined the wall. Xion cleared the bed of the sketches, setting them on a large, clay-splattered desk against the wall the doorway was on, and invited Roxas to sit on it.

"Do you like it?" she asked, imitating the look girls had when they were hanging on to every word a guy was saying.

"Yeah, it's amazing. You really did all these?"

"Of course she did," Sora said, cutting Xion off. "She rarely ever gets out of the house because she's always making these."

Xion punched her twin in the shoulder, only verbally replying with a curt "asshole." She then started looking around her bed and then a TV stand on the opposite wall for something. "Do you know where my PS3 controller is?" she asked Sora.

"It might be in my room."

"God, I hate you. Please go and get it."

Sora got up and left the room. His curiosity piqued, Roxas followed him into a room directly adjacent to Xion's. Sora's room was the exact size of Xion's with an exactly opposite layout. The main differences were that the walls were an electric blue accented by varying yellow and silver designs, and the bed had a comforter adorned several times over with the National Struggle League's logo. Roxas also couldn't help but notice there were faint traces of Sora's shampoo in the air, arguably his favourite part of the room so far. Sora had gone through the door next to his bed that Roxas now realized led to a bathroom that both bedrooms shared and was now coming back out with a perplexed look on his face and no controller in hand.

"Mind helping me look?" he asked Roxas, who shook his head in reply.

As the two searched the room (which was cleaner than Roxas honestly expected it to be), the realization that he was in his dream boy's bedroom suddenly became very clear to Roxas. He had been in a vague, nondescript version of this very room several times, spending a lot of intimate dream time with his dream lover before he had a face, and the more Roxas thought about this, the brighter the red in his cheeks flared and the greater his small smile became. He was soon absentmindedly yet joyfully humming the song Sora had been playing in his car, which caused the brunet's ears to perk when he heard the familiar tune.

"You like Chiodos?" he inquired.

"Love them," the blonde replied. "Cloud introduced me to their first album, and I've followed their music ever since."

"Same way with me and Leon. He only loves the first album, though. I have favourite songs from all three."

"Me too! I have a special place in my heart for 'Caves.'"

"Oi, Sora! Come back in here!"

The brunet looked down at the floor and shook his head. "Idiot," he mumbled under his breath. "I bet she found it on that messy-ass desk of hers."

The pair went back into Xion's room who had an apologetic look on her face as she held the slightly clay-dusted PS3 controller in her hand ("Five points for me," Sora muttered) and was searching through Netflix.

"Sorry, Sora. I misplaced it beneath a few sketches. Also, I think I heard Mom calling you from downstairs."

"Yeah, whatever. I'll go see what Mom wants."

Sora exited the room, and Xion grabbed Roxas's hand leading him to the bed where they both sat.

"So do you like them?" she asked, still holding Roxas's hand and using her other one to gesture at her sculptures.

"Yeah, they're really cool. You must spend a lot of time making them."

"Typically. I haven't been really feeling the passion to sculpt lately, though."

"Well, what about what you were working on today?"

Xion thought about it and smiled. "You came along and sparked my creativity again." Roxas felt her hand tighten on his as she slowly leaned forward and—

"Yo, pizza's here!" Sora called from down the staircase.

Roxas took the opportunity the brunet's interruption created and started walking towards the lower floor, Xion shortly following after him. _Was she really about to try and kiss me?_ Roxas thought to himself. Then he heard a low voice behind him muttering the word "dammit" repeatedly, confirming his suspicions. Roxas internally groaned as he took stock of the mess he'd essentially gotten himself into.

Sora was waiting at the end of the staircase, tapping his foot impatiently. Roxas was so glad now that his dream boy interrupted the previous goings-on upstairs that he wanted to run up and hug the boy (though it wouldn't be the only reason), but he composed himself enough to flash an incredibly awkward smile. Sora took notice of it and with a raised eyebrow asked, "So what exactly did I miss by being down here."

His reply was a bunch of stammering followed by a "nothing" from Roxas and a "fuck you" from Xion, the latter of which made him start bawling in laughter.

"All right then, sure. In any case, pizza's in the kitchen."

Roxas and Xion followed Sora to the kitchen where a brunet slightly shorter than Sora was placing her purse on the counter to unpack groceries.

"Oh, hello there," she said upon noticing Roxas. "You must be a friend of Sora's. Or maybe a friend of Xion's? Anyways, I'm their mother, Raine."

"Hi, I'm Roxas." He shyly waved his hand as Sora went to help his mother.

"Don't worry about it, dear. I only needed you to help me carry them in. Your father's working a security gig for some big executive from the mainland, so he wasn't here to help. Besides, I don't want your pizza to get cold or anything."

"Okay, thanks mom. And thank you for paying for it. I just deposited my paycheck today, so you didn't have to."

"Well, that's what I'm here for. Soon you'll be off to some university, probably competing on the school's Struggle team like your father and Squall."

The trio thanked Raine again for buying the pizza and took it back up to Xion's room. With her newly recovered PS3 controller, she got on Netflix and played the first season of American Horror Story. Roxas wasn't paying attention to the various murders and mysterious happenings of the show, though; as he ate his pizza, he was looking at the twins out of the corner of his eye. Xion would every now and then stare holes in the back of his head with a slight look of worry, while Sora was unabashedly looking at both of them with some emotion that made Roxas think he was mad at something. Every once in a while, the show would have a jump scare that suddenly drew everyone's attention back to the screen, but that only lasted for 15 seconds or so each time. At the end of the second episode, only a few slices were left, and they were all too full to eat more, so Roxas checked his phone to see what time it was.

8:23 p.m.

"Oh no!" he cried. "I still have Trig homework to do!"

"You're in Auron's Trig class?" Sora inquired. "You'd definitely better go home and do it. He absolutely does not accept late work. I can take you to the station in my mom's car."

Roxas scrambled around the room collecting his things, waved goodbye to Xion with a half-smile on his face when he saw her , and ran down the stairs with Sora who yelled a quick explanation to his mom and grabbed her keys out of a small drawer by the door. He got in the passenger seat of Raine's jet black Audi as Sora remote-started it. The brunet got in the car with a slight smirk on his face. "Cool, huh?" he asked Roxas.

"Yeah, I didn't know they put those in cars now."

"I'm just lucky Xion didn't really want a car for her 16th so my parents could spend all their birthday car money on me, not to mention get this sweet thing for themselves. I think I love my car more, though"

"I love y—I mean, I love it, too."

Sora looked at Roxas practically shooting lasers of suspicion from his eyes before the latter cried out as Sora mounted a curb. Upon dismounting the curb and arriving at a stop sign, the panic-stricken teens both laughed hysterically at how unfortunate that could've been. No matter how much he hung around Sora in the future, Roxas was sure he would never get tired of the ringing bells in Sora's laughter.

Not much was said the rest of the trip back to the station as both boys had slipped into a content silence. As a matter of fact, the only sounds in the entire car was more Chiodos music playing at a comfortable but still dominant volume and Sora's phone going off as, Roxas assumed, all the popular kids in school kept texting him, probably to go to some party. Roxas figured that if he were dating the dreamboat in the passenger seat, this would be the perfect time to just hold Sora's free hand and relax in the passenger seat as the rhythmic humming of the V8 engine put him to sleep. Half of his vision ended up coming true, though, when Roxas woke to Sora gently shoving his shoulder.

"We're here, idiot. Don't wanna miss the last train, do we? They stop making rounds at 9:30."

Roxas sluggishly gathered his things from the backseat, accidentally knocking a hat that had also been sitting back there to the ground. He picked it up and noticed the McDonald's logo across the front of it. _This gorgeous boy really works at a McDonald's?_ he thought to himself.

Sora came around the car, wondering what was taking the blonde so long. He noticed the hat and sighed in relief. "I'm glad you found that," he said. "I thought I lost it and had to go without it Sunday. My manager was pissed. Of course I would've just put it in the wrong car."

Roxas gave Sora his hat, then the boys shook hands (oh, how soft Sora's hands never failed to be!) and said goodbye to each other. Roxas called his dad while waiting for the train to arrive.

"Took your time, didn'tcha, boy? As long as you have all your homework done before you go to bed."

"Sorry, dad. I guess I just lost track of time."

"S'ok. Don't stay out too late that you'll worry your mother, though. Did you look at jobs today?"

Roxas began to answer "no" but then thought back to the McDonald's hat that he found in Sora's backseat.

"Yeah, I think I have one in mind…"

Z~Z~Z

So do you see the juicy conflict now? As soon as I thought of making Xion Sora's twin, I also immediately thought I'd throw in somewhat of a love triangle (sorry for those of you who are just now picking up on that). And I also thought I'd throw in a fourth setting, i.e., McDonald's as a workplace to increase the amount of Sora-Roxas time and make the story more realistic by showing that, though one of the two assumedly has more money than the other, our two young, attractive protagonists still have to worry about high school jobs. Now, I know there might be some concern, even if it's minimal, that the workplace setting is McDonald's, but I used to work at a McDonald's myself and still do on every now and then on the weekends. McDonald's to me was a fun place considering it was in a small town and a lot of my friends worked there. Not to mention, I've also had the occasional crush on an employee, and boy, was I excited to go to work when those were around. In conclusion, I hope you like the direction I'm taking the plot in. Pray for minimal homework for me as I write Chapter 6! 3


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